Top SmallGovCon Posts of 2021

2021 was a big year for many reasons, among them the continued COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s responses to the pandemic, including the various vaccine mandates and lawsuits challenging those mandates. But there were also lower-profile changes and updates to the federal contracting world. Below, I’ll explore the posts that were most popular in 2021, along with the posts first published in 2021 that were popular this year.

Continue reading

FAR Final Rule: Increased Micro-Purchase and Simplified Acquisition Thresholds

The Federal Acquisition Regulation has officially been updated to increase the micro-purchase threshold and the simplified acquisition threshold, effective August 31, 2020. Various federal agencies had already increased the thresholds through deviations, but this rule makes it official across the board. A few additional thresholds will increase due to inflation.

Read on for the details on how this could impact federal procurement.

Continue reading

Raising the Roofs . . . and Floors: Acquisition Thresholds in the Time of Emergency

As many contractors have heard, the President declared a state of emergency under the Stafford Act. What will this mean for acquisitions conducted while the COVID-19 emergency continues?

In this post, I’ll dig into some contractor-specific effects of that declaration: modifying the micro-purchase, simplified acquisition, and commercial purchase acquisition thresholds.

Continue reading

SmallGovCon Year in Review: The Top Ten

As we reflect on the end of 2019 and look forward to what 2020 will bring, it’s interesting to see what was noteworthy to our readers in 2019. To that end, I’ve compiled a list of some of our most popular posts from 2019.

2020 will certainly bring many more changes in the federal contracting world and SmallGovCon will be here to provide insight on all of them.

Continue reading

FAR Update: Simplified Acquisition Threshold and Micro-Purchase Threshold are Going Up

The Simplified Acquisition Threshold and Micro-Purchase Threshold are officially increasing under the FAR. While various agencies had already increased the thresholds through deviations, this change will officially update the rules in the FAR.

Although this may seem like a minor update, it will cause changes across the federal contracting landscape and will result in more contracts being issued under the Micro-Purchase and Simplified Acquisition Thresholds.

Continue reading

DoD Micro-Purchase Threshold Will Increase to $10,000

The Department of Defense’s micro-purchase threshold will double, from $5,000 to $10,000, under the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.

The increase in the DoD micro-purchase threshold will put the DoD on par with civilian agencies after Congress increased the civilian micro-purchase threshold to $10,000 in last year’s NDAA.

Continue reading

Civilian Agencies May Increase Simplified Acquisition and Micro-Purchase Thresholds

Civilian agencies may issue class deviations to quickly implement provisions of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act increasing the micro-purchase threshold to $10,000 and the simplified acquisition threshold to $250,000.

In a memorandum for civilian agencies issued on February 16, the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council says that agencies may elect to adopt interim authority allowing their Contracting Officers to take advantage of these higher thresholds, even as the FAR Council goes through the formal process of codifying those changes.

Continue reading